The Milky Way bar is a chocolate bar distributed by the Mars confectionery company.
The American version of the Milky Way bar is made of chocolate-malt nougat topped with
caramel and covered with milk chocolate and is very similar to the Mars bar sold in other
countries.
The non-US Milky Way bar, on the other hand, is not topped with caramel and is therefore
similar to the American 3 Musketeers bar.
American version The Milky Way bar was created in 1923 by Frank
C. Mars and originally manufactured in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The name and taste were taken from a famed malted milk drink of the day – not the Earth’s
galaxy, as many contend.
On March 10, 1925, the Milky Way trademark was registered in the U.S., claiming a first-use
date of 1922.
In 1924, the Milky Way bar was introduced nationally and sold $800,000 that year.
The chocolate for the chocolate coating was supplied by Hershey's.
By 1926 it had two flavors, chocolate and vanilla, each for a nickel.
In June 1932, the Milky Way bar was sold as a two piece bar, but just four years later,
in 1936, the chocolate and vanilla were separated.
The vanilla variant was called "Forever Yours" and it was produced until 1979.
In 1989, Forever Yours was reintroduced and renamed "Milky Way Dark," and later "Milky
Way Midnight.
In 1935 the slogan was "The sweet you can eat between meals."
It was then changed to "At work, rest and play, you get three great tastes in a Milky
Way."
By 2006 the US slogan was "Comfort in every bar." and most recently became "Life's Better
the Milky Way."
In 2010, the Milky Way Simply Caramel bar went on sale.
This version has no nougat and is made of caramel covered in milk chocolate.
In 2011, a fun size offering of the Simply Caramel bar was introduced.
In 2012, Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis went on sale as a limited time offering for the
Halloween season.
The American Milky Way bar contains 260 Calories in each 58 gram bar, while the smaller Milky
Way Midnight contains 220 Calories in each 50 gram bar and the Milky Way Simply Caramel
bar contains 250 calories in each 54 gram bar.
Worldwide version
The European version of the bar has no caramel topping, and consists of a nougat center that
is considerably lighter than that of the Mars bar.
Because of this low density, it floats when placed in milk.
This rare attribute was used for an advertising campaign in Germany, France, Russia, Ireland,
Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Originally available within Europe only in chocolate flavor, the center changed to vanilla
flavor at around 1993, although the chocolate flavor still remains available in Australia.
The bar is also available in banana, mango and strawberry flavors.
In the UK, Mars introduced the Flyte bar which is identical to the old-style chocolate flavored
Milky Way but only comes in twin packs.
Also available in Europe are Milky Way Crispy Rolls, chocolate covered wafer rolls with
a milk-cream filling.
A popular child-oriented derivative of the Milky Way bar known as 'Milky Way Magic Stars'
is also sold in the UK and consists of small aerated chocolate star shapes.
Originally, every star was engraved with a different smiley face, each representing one
of the magic star characters portrayed on the packaging.
The characters were: Pop Star, Jess Star, Bright Star, Super Star, Happy Star, Sport
Star and Baby Star.
Recently, however, the characters and their respective engravings have been discontinued,
possibly to lower production costs.
Depending on the version consumed the calorie intake is different.
For the British version this bar is 99 calories.
Marketing A long running advertising slogan for the
product in the United Kingdom and Australia was, "The sweet you can eat between meals
without ruining your appetite".
In 1991, the Health Education Authority and anti-sugar lobbyists both complained, without
success, to the ITC that such advertising encouraged children to eat sweets between
meals.
The ITC agreed with Mars that its advertisements in fact encouraged restrained eating.
However, marketing for snack foods such as Milky Way has altered since the 1980s, with
its focus now being the reverse of what it was.
Instead of Milky Way and similar foods being snack foods that won't prevent one from eating
normal meals, modern marketing positions these snacks as ones that will reduce hunger at
mealtimes and curb the appetite in-between.
By 2003, sweet marketers such as Andrew Harrison of Nestlé were seeing a reduced social stigma
attached to not consuming three square meals a day, and thus the falling out of favor of
the old Milky Way slogan.
In November 2012, a new print and digital advertising campaign was launched in the US
called "Sorry, I was Eating a Milky Way".
This campaign portrays the comical aftermath of what happens after someone was distracted
due to eating a Milky Way bar.
This campaign originated from the insight that eating a Milky Way bar is a slow and
involved process due to its caramel, chocolate and nougat.
See also List of chocolate bar brands
References
External links Milky Way bar website